I always see folx writing about animism in a wild or urban setting. I see the hikers dangle their rituals off breath-taking cliff sides, and the savvy citykin risking their safety holding blots in a public park. I don’t see people talking about what it’s like to straddle the liminal that is animism in suburbia. And for me, specifically, to be in that transitional space hosting farm and corner pharmacy.

There’s a lot to love about it, and a lot to hate about suburbia. The thing is, it’s all alive. It’s not the same as a pristine primeval forest, or a bustling courtyard.  Yet the corner drugstore, the baseball diamond, the mailbox, the boxwoods, the herb garden… Suburban sprawl has a deeper rhythm all its own, and if you live there,  you are part of it. What do you intentionally contribute to it?

Recognizing the soul of the suburb isn’t just a poetic escape from the rurual or urban; it’s a form of radical re-connection, of spiritual responsibility. It allows you to find sacred space where you live–in the swing set where memories are built, or in the old oak tree that pre-dates the whole development. The story of the land existed before construction, and it has continued with you. Do you know what that story is? How do you learn it, so that you can consciously help it evolve in a way that supports the ecosystem? What lore are you contributing? When we connect with the energy of the suburban world, we stop feeling like small, isolated consumers in an HOA-monitored and planned neighborhood. Instead, we become a conscious, living thread woven into the intricate, breathing tapestry of our community.

This awareness offers profound grounding. It also instills powerful responsiblity to protect the ecosystem, wherever you live. By honoring the life and spirit of the ordinary places we live and drive through—from the utility pole to the drugstore—we dismantle the illusion of separation. The suburb ceases to be an anonymous, lonely sprawl and becomes a network of kin, a living partner in our everyday journey.

@kelleysoularts

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S. Kelley Harrell, M. Div.

Kelley Harrell is an animist, author, deathwalker, and death doula held by Tuscarora, Woccon, and Sissipihaw land. For the last 30 years, through Soul Intent Arts she’s helped others ethically build thriving spiritual paths. Her work is Nature-based, and centers soul tending through the Elder Futhark runes, animism, ancestral tending, and deathwork. She hosts the podcast, What in the Wyrd, and also writes The Weekly Rune as a celebration of the Elder Futhark in season. Work with her in the Runes for Change community or in her intensive soul tending training, The Spirited Path.  Full bio.

#beyourcommunity ~ #youareecosystem

elder well, die well, ancestor well

@kelleysoularts